Monday, August 30, 2010

Risk Taking: Mission and Service

During a sermon I listened to on the way to church yesterday, the following statement was made. Life is built on character (the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person). Character is built on decisions. Decisions are built on values. Values are built on faith. How are you glorifying Christ today through your actions?

Our sermon at First Presbyterian was about Risk Taking: Mission and Service. One of the points made was that mission and service always includes risks. During the prayer of confession, we prayed the following:

We have not loved neighbors as you commanded. Instead, we have done that which is safe, convenient, and comfortable. Help us to be willing to take risks to serve you faithfully in mission and service.

My actions chose to quit my job and move overseas. I took multiple risks. I planned on teaching for the year, and then loosely planned on staying and teaching for more than a year or two, and eventually coming stateside, continuing to teach. I also plan on marrying a wonderful man and starting my own family, preferably within the next few years. I have dreams, goals, and desires.

Teach me the mission appointed for me, what is my labor, and where it shall be.

I am paying the consequences of taking risks. I am without employment. I continue to search daily, for where God wants me to labor, and what it shall be. My search is nationwide. I have considered leaving the teaching field. In the sermon, the positive consequences were discussed, but not once were the negative consequences discussed, and how we deal with them, when they arise. Not all risks we take reap positive rewards.

My response you ask? I continue to pray that God will place me where He wants me. In the meantime I pray that I will serve Him with a joyous heart, while I am unemployed. God has given me this time; I want to glorify Christ through my actions today!